Rotterdam
How Rotterdam’s Green Rooftops Fight Urban Heat
An elevated park in Rotterdam shows how green roofs can cool cities and create public parks in tight quarters.
GE's Massive Offshore Wind Turbine Makes Waves in the Industry
With a diameter longer than two football fields, a new wind turbine design promises to revolutionize the wind energy industry.
The Trains of the Future Could Provide Much More Than Mobility
Renderings of Dutch trains imagine a variety of seating styles for a variety of activities, including working, socializing, and relaxing.
The Dutch: Ready to Export Their Flood Control Expertise
For those who want it, the Netherlands is willing to share the fruits of its centuries-long relationship with the unruly seas. In Rotterdam, lots of local urban solutions are also on display.
Should We Pay People Not to Drive?
Build more lanes, improve operations, let cars do the driving: Are these the best ways to reduce traffic congestion? Richard Mudge thinks a more effective route may be to offer financial incentives to keep people off the roads.
Can We Still Create Beautiful Cities?
Edwin Heathcote looks at "fumbling attempts at creating new forms of urbanity" and "new ideals of beauty" in cities like Milton Keynes, Rotterdam, and Dubai, and asks if we can still create urban beauty, or if it's even desirable in the first place.
With a Little Help From Their Dutch Friends, Could New York Become New Amsterdam?
“In recent days, the Netherlands’ peerless expertise and centuries of experience in battling water have been widely hailed in the United States as offering lessons" for New York and for other cities alike, writes Andrew Higgins.
Art Project Creates a Cozy Oasis in any Urban Room
A provocative art project dubbed the Urban Living Room has appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, its first stop on a worldwide journey to "support dialogue and connection in public realm."
Does Improved Walkability Reduce Crime?
Adam Davies writes about the results of an experimental policing project in the Netherlands that seems to demonstrate that improvements to the pedestrian environment have reduced crime in Rotterdam.
Dropping Bombs and Dropping Parking Lots
This post from The Overhead Wire looks at the impact of parking lot sprawl in American downtowns -- and finds a striking resemblance between those downtowns and bomb-ravaged cities from World War Two.
Food Truck Delivers Local Opportunities
A new community program in Rotterdam is bringing a food truck with new eating options -- and business opportunities -- to working class neighborhoods.
Blight in Full Color
Every city has blight – the unsightly, derelict, abandoned, disheveled, and under-utilized spaces of our urban areas. It drains the life out of neighborhoods, drives down the values of surrounding properties, and just looks really bad. So what do cities do about it? Some seize it through eminent domain for redevelopment and others offer incentives to developers to replace it with something better. Many of them, though, don’t do anything at all. But removing blight from a city is not impossible, and it doesn’t have to be an elaborate multi-party scheme or a drawn-out political process. It can be as simple as a coat of paint.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
